The Blackberry Post

Recently I became the owner of a Blackberry 8100, the “Pearl” model that has been marketed to consumers. It was a reasonable deal subsidized against our cell provider plan, and after some research, it seemed like the best trade-off between price and performance for a smart phone.

After using it for about two weeks my response is simply that all phones should work this way in 2007. There’s no reason why email cannot be managed on a mobile phone, and synched with your account, along with a calendar. The infrastructure exists, companies like Apple are setting a new standard, and Blackberry has already perfected an almost faultless design. Years of careful thinking about ease-of-use is on display with every function point on the Pearl.

Email works so well with the device that most of the time the LED light indicating a new message begins blinking minutes before I see I have new mail on the Gmail webpage - which supposedly refreshes at a short interval. The calendar and contact lists synch easily with Outlook, which, to be honest, isn’t a piece of software everyone loves. But it does help tie everything together. And admittedly, I am using the Blackberry as “Joe Consumer”, not in the Enterprise mode typically common with Crackberry corporate types.

One feature I like – and it’s not uncommon on phones these days – is the voice recognition technology. A side-button allows you to say “Call Larry Mobile” and most of the time the number will dial instantly. Note to the folks at RIM: You should have the ability to configure this feature to automatically launch the speakerphone, if the user so chooses. This completely hands-free operation while driving after one button click.

One very pleasing discovery was the Blackberry's capacity to act as a tethered modem with direct access to the Internet via the EDGE network. If you have the right settings and some technical know-how (the information is available on the Internet) you can use the Blackberry to make a dial-up connection. Thus Laptop + Blackberry + Coverage = Internet anywhere, anytime. You're already paying for data access anyway. I’m not sure that can be done with an iPhone – although theoretically you should be pleased enough with Safari and the touch-screen keyboard that a laptop isn’t needed anymore. In any event, it’s nice to know that buying an add-on feature like a data plan really means access to a network, not yet another item locked-down on the phone by the mobile provider.

Other nice features include a very hi-res large screen, solid bluetooth support, and a MicroSD slot. After getting the phone I immediately picked up a 1GB card for $8 at Newegg.com - which is simply a ridiculous price, no wonder hard drives are moving to flash memory. The phone then doubles as a roomy thumb-drive, with extra storage for pictures taken with the serviceable, though not spectacular 1.3 megapixel camera.

The media player is limited, both in terms of features and playable file types, but that's one of the few drawbacks I discovered. I suppose a truly modern feature set would also include wi-fi support, but it's hard to imagine why that would drastically improve the "user experience".

Overall this is a very nice piece of technology. For better or for worse I am more wired than ever, clicking through Michael Yon dispatches at the lunch counter, and checking out an email from my sister while waiting for an elevator.

Tags: Blackberry Pearl